Sarasvati - Of Art and Knowledge

1. Today was mostly a catching up day at work, since I had not only the weekend but the three business trip days last week where I wasn't really spending that much time on my regular work. I am all caught up now, though!

2. I also got my reimbursements submitted for the trip. The hotel and flight were paid through the travel agent who arranged everything, so I don't need reimbursements for those, but there's uber trips and per diems, so I should get reimbursed for those next week.

3. We have a couple cardboard cat loungers that are in pretty bad shape, and rather than get more cardboard ones, Carla ordered some sissel ones and those arrived today. Spritzed them with catnip spray to get the babies interested and so far they seem to like them.

Today is Anaheim Ducks Day at DCA and I specifically made a reservation for today rather than Saturday (our usual), not because either of us care anything about hockey or the Ducks, but because last year we just happened to be there on that day and had an amazing burrito that they only serve on Ducks Day lol.

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Recently Finished
The Reyes Incident
I think I got this on some sort of ebook sale. It feels like the sort of thing where I'd be like "well, it's free or just a dollar, so I'll take a chance". It wasn't great, though. Interesting premise about a woman who comes to the police station with a story of killer mermaids who ate her friends. The writing just wasn't great, though.

Another Appalachia
Memoir about a queer Indian woman who grew up in West Virginia, where her dad had taken a job as a company doctor for one of the chemical companies there in the 70s. I liked this.

A Skinful of Shadows
Set in the 1600s during the English civil war, the MC is the bastard of a powerful family who all have the ability to see ghosts and host them inside themselves. When her mother dies, she is taken in by the family, who it turns out, like to keep bastards close in the event that they need a ghost host, becaue the currently living members of the family are all host to multiple ghosts each, of dead family members. In some cases the host is too weak and becomes completely taken over by the ghosts. This was a neat premise and an enjoyable read. I have never not liked anything by Francis Hardine that I've read, and this was no exception.

Paying the Land
Non-fiction graphic novel about First Nations people in the Northwest Territories. The author is white, but he spent a lot of time interviewing people and it's basically like an illustrated interview. Very interesting.

Hen na E vol. 4

Ojisama to Neko vol. 16

1. Despite a mixup at the airport, I arrived safely in NoCal for my first ever business trip. After I got through security this morning, an airport staff person asked me what airline I was flying on and when I said Southwest, she told me I had to go downstairs and take a shuttle to my gate. This seemed odd to me since I entered at the place at that said Southwest but there’s a lot of construction going on, so I figured maybe it had something to do with that. But when I arrived at the other terminal, it was clear I was in the wrong place, so I had to take the shuttle back. Thankfully I was at the airport with plenty of time to spare so there was still like an hour before boarding and I was able to get breakfast and get to my actual gate in plenty of time. The flight itself is short, only like an hour in the air, though we did have to circle around the airport once before landing because it was so windy they had to come in from the other direction. Amusingly there was a guy from work on my same flight, though we hadn’t realized until boarding that we were traveling together.

2. I have mostly avoided the rain today. It was raining a little traveling from the airport to the store, but I wasn’t the one driving, and it had stopped by the time I arrived. Dry throughout the day, I was able to take a walk after lunch. And my hotel is just across the street. But tonight I had to go out to buy toothpaste and toothbrush because the hotel doesn’t provide them (cheapskates) and I didn’t take my umbrella because it wasn’t supposed to rain for hours, but when I was leaving the store it was pouring, so I had to go back in and buy an umbrella. I actually have one in my suitcase! D: But now I have another one. I did get pretty soaked even with it, but I think I can manage to dry my shoes out with the hairdryer the hotel provided. Tomorrow is supposed to be no rain all day so fingers crossed.

3. There are loads of nice restaurants around and tonight I walked to a sort of food court area where I ended up getting some very tasty yuzu ramen.


Sorry, no cat pics today or tomorrow as posting is fiddle enough from my iPad. I did post on bluesky, though. I’m torachan on bluesky if you want to see cats. Otherwise I will be back to cat posting on Friday.

1. So much rain today. When I went out for my walk this morning, it was just sprinkling very lightly (at times not at all) so that was fine, but I stopped at the store to get a few things and it was raining harder when I came out, then after I got home, it started really pouring and did not let up for hours. It did pause a few times, and I was able to get out to the garage to use the exercise machine and work on my puzzle, and then later I went on another walk myself and then one with Carla, and both times it started raining right after we got home. There's still supposed to be more rain for the next few days, but it looks like it'll mostly be happening overnight, so hopefully won't be too intrusive.

2. When I stopped at the store this morning, they were just putting out the fresh bakery baguettes we like, so I got one of those and some ham to make jambon buerre sandwiches for dinner. The only problem is I still had about half a mile to walk to get home, and the baguette is long and comes in a paper package. But! I had the smart idea of getting a couple plastic bags from the produce area and putting one on each end of the baguette, so it was protected from the rain.

3. I finished up another puzzle today, another 1000 piece one. This one was fun, but I don't think I'll want to do it again, so I'll probably put it out in the Little Free Library for someone else.



4. I cleaned the stove today. It's an old stove (based on the brown color, I assume it and the oven and the old fridge we no longer have were installed in the 60s by the people who owned the house before my parents) and is hard to just wipe clean after using because it has a setup similar to the top picture in the wikipedia page on gas stoves, but somehow even worse? Anyway, if you miss cleaning it after use just a few times, the grease build-up is impossible to take care of quickly and easily and it becomes a huge project of having to take the stovetop apart and scrub all the pieces. Definitely something to be done on a day when I don't have anything else to do, which is rare, so today was a perfect day. I had it on my to-do list but was tempted to put it off to some unknown time in the future, but since I was stuck inside with the rain, I just went ahead and did it, and while the stove will never look actually nice just due to age, it looks presentable and I feel really good about it.

I would like to get a new stove, but because we have a built-in stovetop and separate oven, it's not as simple as just buying a new one, and would require new countertops, and then if you're doing that, might as well replace the awful 45 year old flooring that's peeling up, and the cupboards are pretty dire, too, and it's a whole kitchen remodel, which is not only going to be expensive, but hard on the cats, so... (Someday, but not right now.)

5. Jasper was exploring the dryer the other day.